February 23, 2007

Property statistics investors needs to watch

by Brian Turner
The housing market is booming - is continuing to boom - and with estate agents reporting invigorated increases for Jan 2007, there's no slowdown in sight. This should be an ideal time for property investment - while house prices continue to rise, there are profits to be made. And why shouldn't they keep rising? After all, it's commonly reported that there's ...

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Refund Loans - Don’t Go There

by Kathyrn Lang
As if the traditional loans, the credit cards, and the banks weren’t taking enough of the average man’s wages – now tax preparers are popping up to take the tax refund even before it makes it to the people’s hands. It’s not “interest rates” that are eating up the tax refunds. Instead, companies are calling it an advancement fee or extra fee. Basically, the company that does ...

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February 22, 2007

Wall Street down at midday

by Elaine Frei
The Tokyo equities markets advanced significantly on Thursday, a day after the Bank of Japan announced that it had voted to raise interest rates to 0.5 percent. The Nikkei 225 added 1.1 percent to 18,108.79, the first time it had gone above 18,000 in nearly seven years. The Topix index gained 0.9 percent to 1,802.90. The Mothers market of ...

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More complaining about bank penalty charges

by Elaine Frei
More people are complaining about penalties levied by banks and building societies, according the Financial Ombudsman. New figures show that approximately 1,000 people per day are calling the Ombudsman with complaints, compared to the 100 calls per week it was getting last year at this time. Previously, most of the calls that the Ombudsman received were in relation to ...

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Larger, heavier vehicles could pay more for insurance

by Elaine Frei
In a review of its rating system for automobiles, the Association of British Insurers said Thursday that it will put more emphasis on the weight of vehicles for purposes of assigning insurance premiums. The ABI said that the new ratings will reflect new technologies and the wider range of vehicles being manufactured today. The number of vehicle ...

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Government undecided on pensions case appeal

by Elaine Frei
Work & Pensions Secretary John Hutton told members of Parliament on Thursday that the government will pay the legal costs so far accrued of the four men who brought action against the government in the pensions case that resulted in the High Court admonishing the government for providing misleading and inaccurate information about how secure pensions schemes are. The men ...

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Business investment up in fourth quarter

by Elaine Frei
The Office of National Statistics has released new data showing that business investment in the UK was up in the last quarter of 2006, suggesting that corporations are more confident about the economy. Investment in business was up 3.3 percent in the quarter and was 11.1 percent higher than it was in the fourth quarter of 2005. The increases ...

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February 21, 2007

Investing Is Making Me Dizzy

by Kathyrn Lang
I recently read an article about investing in gold. It’s just beyond my ability to fathom. What do you do with a great big old gold bar any way? For me, investments are a bit of a mystery. I tried mutual funds. I sat down with the investment office expert. I asked questions, and I thought I understood what she was saying and what I was ...

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Equities markets see declines

by Elaine Frei
In Japan on Wednesday, the Tokyo equities markets were mixed but barely reacted to the decision by the Bank of Japan to raise interest rates to 0.5 percent. Still, the Topix managed to gain 0.3 percent to 1,787.23, its highest close in 15 years. The Nikkei 225, however, dropped 0.1 percent to 17,913.21. Banks saw advances after the announcement, as ...

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Minutes show latest MPC interest rate vote at 7 to 2

by Elaine Frei
Minutes of the most recent meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England were released Wednesday. They show that the committee’s vote on holding the interest rate at its current level was 7 to hold the rate steady to 2 votes to raise the interest rate by 25 basis points. The ...

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High Court admonishes government in pensions case

by Elaine Frei
A High Court judge ruled Wednesday that the government erred in rejecting parliamentary ombudsman Ann Abraham’s findings that it was guilty of maladministration in providing misleading information that led to tens of thousands of people losing their pensions. The judge ordered the government to reexamine the issue with Ms. Abraham’s findings in mind. However, it also ruled that ...

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Alliance & Leicester says profits grew 7 percent last year

by Elaine Frei
Reports season in the UK banking sector continued on Wednesday as Alliance & Leicester (LSE: AL) said that profits were up 7 percent last year to £585 million. That was much less than the 35 percent rise in profits reported Tuesday by Barclays Bank (LSE: BARC; NYSE: BCS; TYO: 8642), but chief executive Richard Pym echoed ...

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New policy wording closes seized-car loophole

by Elaine Frei
The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has created model policy wordings that would remove a loophole that allows uninsured drivers to get their vehicles back after they have been seized by the police for not having insurance on their cars. The loophole has allowed those other than the owner of the vehicle to retrieve seized vehicles by using the “driving ...

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February 20, 2007

Markets, metals prices mixed

by Elaine Frei
While the Topix index in Tokyo fell back from a 15-year high early in the session on Tuesday, it still managed to hit its highest closing level in 10 months as it added 0.2 percent on the session to 1,782.73. The Nikkei closed even at 17,939.12. Both indices were affected by investor unease as the Bank of Japan began its latest ...

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High Court to rule in pensions dispute

by Elaine Frei
A ruling is due Wednesday from the High Court in a case that could affect as many as 85,000 people who lost at least part of their company pensions when 400 pension schemes closed down between 1997 and 2005. The issue is whether the government violated the law when it rejected last year’s report from the Parliamentary Ombudsman that ...

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January mortgage lending down from December, still sets record

by Elaine Frei
The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has said that January saw the highest level of mortgage lending of any January on record. Gross mortgage lending in the month reached £26.8 billion dollars, 16 percent more than in January 2006. While the amount lent was 6 percent lower than in Decmeber, when the CML reported lending of ...

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Barclays Bank reports 2006 profits up 35 percent

by Elaine Frei
Barclays Bank (LSE: BARC; NYSE: BCS; TYO: 8642) has released its 2006 profits report, showing its pre-tax profits in the year to be at £7.14 billion, up 35 percent over 2005 and a new record for the company. It said that while bad debt was up 37 percent and its Barclaycard credit card division had a 40 percent ...

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OFT calls for new drug spending plan

by Elaine Frei
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has said that the National Health Service (NHS) is paying far too much for name-brand drugs. In the conclusion of a study that has been ongoing since September 2005, the OFT has decided that the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme (PPRS) needs to be redesigned because in its current state it does not result ...

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Business Plan ABC’s – Getting Started

by Kathyrn Lang
Writing a business plan can be as simple as ABC. A – Action Plan. You need to devise a step by step guide on what you are going to do and when. B – Budget. Know the cost of different aspects of the future business. Set up a system for dealing with those costs. C – Current Situation. List the factors that are in line at present, include market ...

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February 19, 2007

Savings - You Must Diversify

by Kathyrn Lang
The only investment most people are making these days is in their home. Having savings does not seem to be a priority for most. To truly be financially secure, people need to spread their savings around. More importantly, people need to be saving in the first place. I know this – but I have to admit that I fall into the first category. The only investment my family is ...

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